Page 148 of Rise of the Queen

“We can talk to him. Now that Armando is gone, he can be moved to a more comfortable room, since he’s going to be here for a while longer,” he said.

“Today is a good day to do it. No one else will be in the office,” Viktor said.

“Has anything else come up for you about Dario, Yoden? Just that you want to make sure we didn’t miss anything?” I asked. There was always a reason that things like this seemed to “randomly” come up. We just had to find the reason.

Stephen thought for a few moments, analyzing his own thoughts. “I was also thinking about how broken his mindalready is. I want to know more about why that is. Part of me wonders if it was an act, part of me is curious if it was Massimo or Sal who did it to him. And if so, how. There’s just something that feels slightly off, but I don’t know if it’s Dario or something else.”

“You’re wondering if maybe he was acting broken to get our sympathy?” Adrik asked. Stephen nodded. Even Adrik was thoughtful for a few moments. “I’m the one who made the decision that he could go free,” he said. He looked at me. “You were struggling with your anger after being told that Sal and Armando were going to get into a fight over you. It’s very possible I missed something.” He thought for a minute more, then looked at Viktor. “Have him moved this morning to a more comfortable room than where he’s at. We’ll go talk to him tomorrow afternoon, when we get back.”

Viktor nodded his head, pulling his phone out to give the necessary orders. Misha asked, “You want to go to the house this weekend?”

Adrik nodded this time. “I think we could all use a break. That seems to be the one place where we can all turn everything off for a bit. Now we need it even more.”

Ivan’s sly grin turned up one side of his mouth. “You’ve been hanging around the princess. You’re getting really good at that.”

We were now all slightly on edge, wondering if we’d missed something before. I was grateful that Stephen had thought of it, as the rest of us had mostly forgotten about Dario. We hadn’t needed him for information, so he was just waiting until we took care of the rest of the bosses before he could go free. With the return of Niko and Vito possible in the very near future, it would help to know everything about Dario.

Chapter Forty-Four

Adrik

That afternoon, once we’d arrivedat the house, Viktor surprised the rest of us by asking if he could take Sephie for a walk, just the two of them, while she was upstairs for a minute.

“I still have making up to do with her from everything that’s happened,” Viktor said.

“You do,” Ivan agreed. “But that’s the best place to do it. Make sure you tell her everything though. She already knows anyway, but she needs to hear you say it.”

Viktor chuckled. “You’re not the only one that’s told me that recently,” he said. Apparently, he and Kostya spoke quite often. Much more than the rest of us were aware of. If he was getting that kind of advice from him, I wasn’t going to be mad about it though.

Sephie walked into the back room, where the rest of us were. Her smile made the room brighter as her eyes landed on me. It didn’t seem to matter how long we spent together, she was always happy to see me after even the shortest time away from me. I loved it. I couldn’t get enough of it.

“Sestrichka, I was hoping you’d like to take a walk with me?” Viktor asked. I don’t think I’d ever seen him so timid. He wasnervous, but at least he was finally trying to make things truly right once again.

“I would love to, Papa Bear. But now I have to go get my coat. Shockingly, I’m cold,” she said, grinning at all of us before jogging back upstairs.

“Her lung is getting better and better. She’s acting more like her old self,” Stephen observed.

“Yeah, I was going to try the short distance with her again in the morning if you want to come too,” Misha said. “Hopefully this time, she’ll be able to catch her breath better, but at least I know what to do now if she can’t.”

“Don’t worry, Misha. It’s terrifying for all of us when that happens,” I said. Watching her struggle to breathe was still one of the most horrifying things I’d ever seen. It’s the biggest reason that I was able to turn off my bloodlust so quickly with Armando. I could feel her struggling. Everything else shut off and there was only concern for her.

She walked back in, now with her coat on. She walked to me, leaning down to kiss me before leaving with Viktor. I thought back to how shy she used to be about any sort of affection in front of the guys. It made me smile to see her so comfortable.

“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do while we’re gone,” she said as they walked out the back doors. She slid her arm through Viktor’s as they walked around the pool toward the gardens, then stopped to look at a few of the rose bushes, noticing that there were the tiniest little buds starting to appear. I could feel the warmth from her smile as she said something to Viktor, making him laugh as they continued toward the woods.

“He has no idea how lucky he is that she’s so forgiving. I would’ve made him suffer a lot longer,” Ivan said.

I laughed. Mostly because I agreed. “I think we all would have. It’s been really hard on her, especially since she’s so connectedto all of us now. She’s not with him and she feels that every time we’re all together. She said it’s a constant reminder of his rejection. She understands why he chose the decision he did, but she’s struggled with how long it’s taken him to be okay with the rest of us,” I said.

“It’s been difficult for all of us, but not to the same level as her. It’s obvious to us that his connection is the weakest too,” Andrei said.

“Maybe it will get stronger over time. He’s arguably been the slowest out of all of us. Maybe his connection will keep slowly increasing. It seems like he’s talking to Kostya very regularly,” Stephen said in his usual reasonable manner.

“For her sake, I hope you’re right. As much as she worries that she’s holding you all back from living your own lives, she really enjoys the connection she has with all of you,” I said.

“She does what now?” Ivan asked, completely surprised.

“She’s worried she’s holding you back from living your lives. From finding girlfriends. She thinks Stephen will have an easier time, but only just barely. She brought up the conversation we had about it in Italy, when Ivan pointed out how difficult it was going to be to find suitable girlfriends now that you know her and see what we have. It doesn’t seem to matter how much I reassure her, she’s still worried she’s holding you back,” I said.

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